Design Futures Africa Archives - Page 2 of 2

Chos’chosi by Sihle Sogaula and Siviwe James

Chos’chosi is an exploration into belonging, identity, land, and language: kwaXhosa. The animated 3D model, housed in our independent app created by Sisanda Tech, mimics a seated figure that grapples with ideas of fashioning, mending, and the making of Xhosa...

July 22, 2022

Whoreduh by Tamzyn Botha and Tinyiko Makwakwa

Design Futures Africa

Whoreduh by Tamzyn Botha and Tinyiko Makwakwa

Waves lap the sand and bird calls are heard from the treetops, but upon closer inspection this landscape quickly becomes familiar. Each texture, plant, geological structure, and almost tangible object is recognisable, crafted out of waste materials and found objects....

July 22, 2022

Zola by Ian Mangenga and Sthandiwe Khumalo

Design Futures Africa

Zola by Ian Mangenga and Sthandiwe Khumalo

Zola is an e-commerce platform that aggregates sustainable fashion designers on one shopping platform. This allows customers to make informed purchasing decisions by virtually trying on garments from the comfort of their own homes using Augmented Reality technology. At Zola...

July 22, 2022

The XV Algorhythm by Ntando XV and Pixel Chef

Design Futures Africa

The XV Algorhythm by Ntando XV and Pixel Chef

We wanted to reflect on the cultural significance that blankets have on popular African traditions and cultural ceremonies. This project was inspired by Southern African cultural and ceremonial events, where a blanket is used as a symbol of protection and...

July 22, 2022

Design Futures Lab 2022 Creatives Use Immersive Technology to Envision Inclusive Fashion Futures

Design Futures Africa Features

Design Futures Lab 2022 Creatives Use Immersive Technology to Envision Inclusive Fashion Futures

Fashion is a powerful medium for storytelling, reflecting the zeitgeist and challenging the status quo. In a time of compounding planetary and social crises, sustainability has repositioned fashion as a force for good. Alongside fashion, immersive technology and new media...

May 11, 2022

Meet the Design Futures Lab 2022 Creatives

Design Futures Africa Features

Meet the Design Futures Lab 2022 Creatives

Nine teams of two creatives each have been selected for the Design Futures Lab 2022. Included in the lab are fashion designers, artists, gamers, product designers and creative technologists who will be making immersive media prototypes.The Design Futures Lab is...

February 25, 2022

Meet the designer who is creating a green fashion movement in Zambia

Design Futures Africa Features

Meet the designer who is creating a green fashion movement in Zambia

Softly spoken during most of our conversation, Betty Chilonde becomes animated when the topic turns to circularity and the potential of fashion in Zambia. Betty is not only a designer. She is also an educator, farmer and activist quietly shaping...

February 28, 2021

Fabric of change: Mozambican designer Wacy Zacarias fixes textiles with healing plants

Design Futures Africa Features

Fabric of change: Mozambican designer Wacy Zacarias fixes textiles with healing plants

When Mozambican designer Wacy Zacarias realised that most African textiles were not really African but imports from Holland and China, she shifted her focus from fashion design to reclaiming textiles for something more meaningful. “The tradition of African textiles,” she...

February 21, 2021

Vanessa Nsona is designing a circular future for Malawi

Design Futures Africa Features

Vanessa Nsona is designing a circular future for Malawi

Vanessa Nsona collects waste, tinkers and toys, prototypes and makes new products. Circular thinking is central to her work in Malawi. “I have always thought of waste as treasure,” she says. I spent a day with Vanessa, visiting her workshop,...

February 14, 2021

Moreblessings Moyo: A street vendor in Harare who does more with less

Design Futures Africa Features

Moreblessings Moyo: A street vendor in Harare who does more with less

Makadikko, avandi Moreblessings Moyo. Mama Moreblessings is my new comic book character. Read her story here: Moreblessings Moreblessings works as a street vendor in Harare, Zimbabwe, hustling to make ends meet, while her husband does the same as an uber...

February 7, 2021

Beyond the Age of Waste: Meet the designers creating a circular future in Mauritius

Design Futures Africa Features

Beyond the Age of Waste: Meet the designers creating a circular future in Mauritius

Mahendra Gooroochurn lives on an island that Mark Twain supposedly compared to paradise on earth. Was Twain right? In Mauritius, people of diverse cultures live in harmony, near blossoming pink sugarcane, beautiful pearly-white beaches and indigenous forests. But all is...

January 30, 2021

How Joburg designer Matthew Edwards is innovating a circular materials future

Design Futures Africa Features

How Joburg designer Matthew Edwards is innovating a circular materials future

Designer Matthew Edwards holds a three-dimensional cube in the palm of his hand. It is small with smoothed-over jagged sides. The deep blue and white colours dance together as if swirling in a slab of marble or like the calico...

January 24, 2021

Six collaborations shaping circular design in Southern Africa

Design Futures Africa

Six collaborations shaping circular design in Southern Africa

Design Futures Africa presents six stories about design and the circular economy in Southern Africa. In the first story, published on Sunday 24 January, Stefanie Jason speaks to South African industrial designer, Matthew Edwards, about his transformation of Johannesburg’s waste...

January 24, 2021

Meet the storytellers exploring the future of circular design in Africa

Design Futures Africa Features

Meet the storytellers exploring the future of circular design in Africa

Design Futures Africa is a collaborative project between Twyg, storytellers and the British council using the power of narrative to further the reach and understanding of African designers. Storytellers were tasked with creating narratives about the journeys of six designers...

February 11, 2020

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